A^ctJo°bUer,  Pi9air9m'  )  Sodium  Morrhuate  in  Tuberculosis.  689 
and  by  hedges,  and  Agrostis  vulgaris,  or  bent  grass,  a  very  common 
grass  on  dry  heaths  and  pastures  and  by  roadsides  were  therefore 
examined.  Neither  of  these  grasses  is  a  fodder  plant.  The  former 
is  a  weed  which  is  treated  like  couch  grass  by  the  farmer,  and  the 
latter  is  said  to  be  disliked  by  cattle.  Neither  of  these  species  was 
present  in  any  of  the  samples. 
The  therapeutic  value  of  Triticum  repens  is  somewhat  obscure, 
and  the  question  arises  whether  Cynodon  Dactylon  may  not  have  the 
same  or  a  similar  action.  The  solution  of  that  problem  is  outside 
the  scope  of  this  investigation,  which  is  a  purely  botanical  inquiry 
into  the  source  of  the  present  supply  of  commercial  couch  grass. 
The  botanical  source  is  undoubtedly  Cynodon  Dactylon,  and  the 
history  of  the  trade  in  drugs  during  the  war  suggests  that  Spain  is 
the  geographical  source  of  the  material.  Zufall,  in  a  recent  article 
on  couch  grass,  in  the  Journal  of  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation, has  also  identified  Cynodon  Dactylon  as  the  chief  adulterant 
of  and  substitute  for  the  U.S. P.  Triticum. 
Acknowledgments  are  due  to  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes  for  bringing 
the  problem  to  my  notice  and  for  supplying  a  number  of  specimens; 
also  to  Professor  H.  G.  Greenish  for  some  of  the  samples. 
SODIUM  MORRHUATE  IN  TUBERCULOSIS.1 
Reference  was  made  last  year  (Prescriber,  1918,  p.  149)  to  the 
introduction  of  a  sodium  salt  of  the  fatty  acids  of  cod-liver  oil, 
known  as  sodium  morrhuate,  as  a  remedy  for  tuberculosis.  Sir 
Leonard  Rogers  was  led  to  think  of  this  preparation  by  the  success 
of  intravenous  injections  of  sodium  gynocardate  in  leprosy.  He  now 
{Brit.  Med.  Jour.,  igig,  I,  147:  Feb.  8)  gives  a  full  report  of  the 
new  product. 
Sodium  morrhuate  is  made  from  the  unsaturated  fatty  acids  of 
cod-liver  oil  after  extraction  by  ether,  by  a  process  similar  to  that  by 
which  sodium  gynocardate  (see  Prescriber,  1918,  p.  123)  is  made 
from  chaulmoogra  oil.  A  3  per  cent,  aqueous  solution,  sterilized,, 
with  the  addition  of  0.5  per  cent,  phenol,  may  be  injected  subcutane- 
ously,  with  very  little  pain,  and  also  intravenously.  A  year's  experi- 
ence has  shown  that  such  injections  are  of  great  value  in  leprosy, 
which  proves  that  there  is  nothing  specific  in  chaulmoogra  oil,  and 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Prescriber,  July,  1919. 
